News

College Commission Elects Officers

PENDLETON --- Tri-County Technical College's Commission, its governing board, elected officers for 2011 at its February meeting. Their three-year terms are effective April 1.

W.H. Hudson, of Seneca, was elected chairman. He has been a member of the Commission since 2001 and previously served as vice chair. Leon (Butch) Harris, III, of Anderson, was elected vice-chairman. He was appointed to the Board in 2008. D. Pruitt Martin, of Anderson, a member of the Board since 2004, was re-elected secretary-treasurer. They will take office in April.

Mr. Hudson has represented Oconee County on the Commission since 2001. He retired in 2003 as president and CEO of Oconee Medical Center where he served for 32 years. He was named president and CEO emeritus. He is a former board member and chair of Palmetto Hospital Trust Services, Ltd. and the South Carolina Hospital Association and a former South Carolina delegate to the American Hospital Association. He received the S.C. Hospital Association's Merit Award in 1983 and the Association's Distinguished Service Award in 1992 and the PHTS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. At his retirement in 2003, he was awarded The Order of the Palmetto. He is a Life Fellow of The American College of Healthcare Executives and a member of Seneca Baptist Church. He holds a B.A. in business and sociology from Limestone College and a certificate in hospital administration from Charlotte Memorial Hospital.

Mr. Harris represents Anderson County on the Commission. He currently serves as chair of the finance committee and a member of the building committee. He is project manager at Koyo Bearings, USA, (formerly Torrington and later Timken). He began his career at Torrington in 1976 after earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at Clemson University and has been a licensed professional engineer since 1981.

He has worked in various management capacities at plants across the state, beginning at the Clinton plant as project engineer and later engineering group leader. In 1983 he moved to the Walhalla plant as manufacturing superintendent for four years and was back in Clinton for another five years as engineering and manufacturing manager. In 1992 he was named plant manager of the Timken Honea Path plant, where he remained until 2007. He spent a short time at the Canton, GA, plant as plant manager before returning to the Walhalla plant as its manufacturing manager, then as its plant manager. He has been in his present job since 2010.

His professional and civic affiliations include serving as a board member and past chair of the Pendleton District Workforce Investment Board and past president of the Honea Path Civitan Group. He is past chapter chairman of the American Society for Metals, previously chaired the Laurens County Chamber of Commerce, and was former campaign chair for the Laurens County United Way. He served as a board member for the Honea Path Rescue Squad, Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce, Anderson County Vocational Rehabilitation Center and the Anderson County Business-Education Partnership. He has been a board member for the Anderson County Local Emergency Planning Committee and a member of the Walhalla Rotary Club.

Mr. Martin also represents Anderson County on the Commission. He has 33 years of banking experience and is the executive vice president and regional executive for Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties for The Palmetto Bank.

He holds a B. S. in Banking and Finance from the University of South Carolina and is a graduate of the School of Retail Bank Management at the University of Virginia.

He is a former chairman and member of the board of directors for the Anderson Area YMCA and a past member of the Anderson Rotary Club. He is a former president of the Anderson Country Club and past chairman of the Young Bankers Division of the South Carolina Bankers Association. He also served on the Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.